Mitra Elena Ghaffari

As a documentary filmmaker, curator and activist,⠀Mitra Ghaffari⠀hopes to create compelling independent media, empower community efforts and influence public policy at the intersection of the three. Her background in multimedia journalism, and five years of international work experience in Cuba, Brazil, and Costa Rica have offered her multiple languages, cultural lenses and the social awareness to creatively document socio-economic issues, collective resistance, and localized, innovative solutions. In addition to fluent English and Spanish, advanced Portuguese, and elementary Farsi, she employs artistic methods as universal languages to create connection beyond cultural, spiritual, and geographical boundaries. Much of her international work is rooted in community building and placemaking through collaborative storytelling, street arts, and movement. In addition to her current projects as a Social Documentation Master of Fine Arts candidate, she is a bike guide and has organized with local Havana bike initiatives on media pieces, workshops for women, bike courier and relief services, DIT (Do It Together) bike mechanics pop-ups and family events.

As she continues to evolve her artistic practice, she hopes to employ visual storytelling as an unrestricted language of collective memory, intercultural exchange, and social advocacy. She considers media and art to be powerful catalysts for social change- creating awareness, evoking empathy, and at best, eliciting participation and action. Her career trajectory grounds international filmmaking in collaborative methods, creative placemaking, and social justice work. She envisions directing community-rooted documentary projects that humanize socio-economic issues and empower intercultural sustainability, cooperation, and solidarity.